Module Catalogue

PHI3018 : Early Twentieth Century Ontology and Epistemology

  • Offered for Year: 2024/25
  • Available for Study Abroad and Exchange students, subject to proof of pre-requisite knowledge.
  • Module Leader(s): Dr Michael Lewis
  • Owning School: School X
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 1 Credit Value: 10
ECTS Credits: 5.0
European Credit Transfer System

Aims

This module aims to introduce students to principal themes and debates in late modern ontology and epistemology.

Outline Of Syllabus

The module provides students with a critical-historical approach to debates in contemporary ontology and epistemology, from approximately1880 to 1945.
Key thinkers may include (amongst others) Husserl, Heidegger, Stein, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, Nietzsche, Bergson, Simondon, and the Pragmatists.
Key questions and themes may include:
- Time and Duration
- Simondon and individuation
- The question of being
- Ethics and the place of the Other
- Nietzschean philosophy
- Pragmatism, Dewey, Pierce
- Cassirer and Neo-Kantianism

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture81:008:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion120:0020:00Essay preparation and completion
Structured Guided LearningStructured research and reading activities101:0010:00Specific research or reading activities developed and directed by academic staff
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesSmall group teaching81:008:00Tutorials
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesWorkshops21:002:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study152:0052:00Review lecture material, prepare for small group teaching and assessment
Total100:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The lectures will provide essential subject-specific knowledge on a range of seminal thinkers and ideas. Seminars permit discussion of the relative merits of these thinkers and ideas and guide independent analysis, interpretation, and critique.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Essay1A1002000 word essay
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Students will be assessed by a 2000-word essay and will be able to choose from a range of essay questions. The essay tests the ability to think analytically, creatively, self-critically and independently as well as managing one’s own work to set time limits. This assessment method also gauges the students’ ability to move between generalisation and appropriately detailed discussion, to cite relevant texts and interpret them adequately, to discover examples in support of or to challenge a position, and to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant considerations.

Reading Lists

Timetable